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HOSEA CHEUNG, QMI AGENCY

Dec 21, 2009

, Last Updated: 8:27 AM ET

The trend continued Sunday as Vancouver dropped yet another game to a bottom-feeding team, losing 3-1 to the West-worst St. Louis Blues at GM Place.

Not only was it their second home loss in the last three games, the Canucks also squandered yet another chance to be amongst the top eight Western teams, remaining one point behind the 41-point Detroit Red Wings, who had lost earlier yesterday.

Thanks to David Backes' two goals -his eighth and ninth of the season-, the Blues won their second game this season over Vancouver, having dominated their first meeting 6-1 back in November. Keith Tkachuk had the other tally for St. Louis, while Ty Conklin made 29 saves.

After 166 NHL games, Shane O'Brien finally got to celebrate a goal, his first as a Canuck in the regular season. Taking a slick backhand pass by Mikael Samuelsson in front of the net, SOB trickled the puck past Ty Conklin to tie the game up at one last in the first.

Despite killing off 19 of the past 21 penalties, the Canucks could not keep St. Louis' powerplay off the board, as the league's worst PP unit went 1-for-3 on the night. Vancouver, on the other hand, were stymied on all four man advantage opportunities.

Vancouver thought it had cut the Blues' lead to 3-2 in the third when the puck deflected off Barrett Jackman and in. However, the ref said that Alex Burrows had kicked the puck before Jackman touched the puck. According to rule 49.2 in the NHL rulebook: "A goal cannot be scored by an attacking player who kicks a puck that deflects into the net off any player, goalkeeper or official."

"I thought it should have been a goal," said Alex Burrows regarding the disallowed goal. "He was so sure that I kicked it in that he waved it off right away and I think that's why they couldn't overturn it."

Vancouver will try to head into the Christmas break on a winning note when they take on the Nashville Predators Tuesday, the second last game of their current eight-game home stretch.